allAfrica.com: Nigeria: 'Tompolo, Dokubo Get N5 Billion to Guard Pipes'

allAfrica.com: Nigeria: 'Tompolo, Dokubo Get N5 Billion to Guard Pipes'

It won't last long. My advice to these guys is to start investing or making plans to go back to school as soon as possible.  Militancy is like ‘Ashawo” business – it has its season and time. It is not like the Legal, Medical, or Accounting profession; it loses its luster rapidly as you grow out of your prime. 

My position on the never ending Niger Delta militancy is very clear: the International Oil Companies (IOCs) are responsible for the desecration of the fresh water and the land all over the Niger Delta. Adding to that, land reclamation undertaking is not negotiable; it is a part of natural resources exploitation, and therefore, an obligation on the part of IOCs. 

On the flip side, the Niger Delta youths must take advantage of the Federal Government Amnesty Program and pick up a new trade or a training program as the case may be.  President Jonathan will not remain in office more than it is constitutionaly allowed. Another government might not be favorably disposed to amnesty or set aside program - meaning cash incentive is definitely not sustainable. 

Finally, the Iboris and the Uncle Deprieyes and those presently in leadership positions in the Niger Delta should always remember that leadership is a fiduciary responsibility - you hold or exercise the power for and on behalf of the people. Stop accumulating wealth you and your immediate or extended family do not have the capacity to manage or spend in a life time. If you must steal, steal what you can spend or what you reasonably need. Anything to the contrary, borders on insanity and stupidity. Ask Governor Ibori. Also, if you can help it, don't steal at all. Ask Uncle Deprieye. There are always bigger opportunities ahead of you, if you do the right thing.

Finally, if Tompolo and Dokubo are executing the contract or the job as defined in the contract, I do not have any problem with it. On the other hand, if performance is not commensurate with compensation; then, only then, would I be troubled.

Please find below, an excerpt from "Bonga Oil Spillage: Niger Delta and Sustainable Development." (http://hamiltonatlarge.blogspot.com/2012/01/bonga-oil-spill-royal-dutch-and.html)

MOVING FORWARD

Indeed, President Goodluck Jonathan’s (Niger Deltan) election as President of Nigeria is important symbolically, but they cannot overcome 50 years of abuse of federal character, quota system, environmental degradations, and the indiscriminate destructions of the aquatic resources that the people of Niger Delta overwhelmingly depend on for their survival by the multi-national oil companies.

They survived 50 years of neglect and deprivations. That is a fact.

They were fisher-men, they were into rubber and they were into timber. They were industrious, self-secured and self-sufficient. They were loyal landlords, until the uninvited quests confiscated their land, took away the riches of their earth, and imperiled their means of survival.

And yes, they produced and drank ogogoro (local gin), but there was no drunkard and no insane delusional or hopeless mind rummaging the swampy landscape scavenging for a piece of the black gold simmering from crevices along the pipelines. IOCs and the Federal Government of Nigeria took their humility for granted and left them economically pulverized.

There was no burning, and there was no looting. There was no kidnapping of white men and not so white men for ransom. And there was no lamentation of force majeure by Shell, or BP, or by Chevron. These companies cleaned up their mess in the Gulf of Mexico and elsewhere in the developed and developing World; they must be made to clean up their mess in the Niger Delta.

That is not too much of a demand.  

January 02, 2012.